About the High School Huddle

Welcome to the Citizen-Times' constantly-updated blog for Western North Carolina high school sports. Features include breaking news, scores and stats, college recruiting updates and live blogs from some of the marquee games in WNC. Readers are encouraged to comment on posts, but personal attacks on current athletes, coaches and their families will not be tolerated and are subject to edit or removal at the moderator's discretion.

Former Reynolds baseball star John Hinson now plays for the Tri-City ValleyCats.

Former Reynolds baseball star John Hinson hit the longest home run of his young pro career Friday for the Tri-City (N.Y.) ValleyCats:

With two out in the third inning, John Hinson took a 2-0 fastball well beyond the right-field wall, landing it at the base of the park boundary fence nearly 450 feet away. The blast was Hinson’s second of the season, both coming in the past week.

“I can run into them sometimes,” quipped Hinson, who reached safely all four times from the leadoff spot. “It felt good. It felt like a home run. It was a 2-0 count, I was pretty sure a fastball was coming … luckily I was on time, and I put a pretty good swing on it.”

For the season, Hinson is batting .295 but .467 in this past three games.

Neil Setzer ran through workouts with the Smoky Mountain football team on Thursday.

Two days later, he was telling the same players what many of them already knew through media reports, that Setzer had resigned as their coach.

Setzer apologized profusely for the timing on Saturday, which marked the first day of official practice for Western North Carolina teams. He has accepted an assistant coaching job at Union County (Ga.), which will allow Setzer to receive a salary in a new state while collecting retirement after 30 years of teaching math in North Carolina.

“I learned about this opportunity last week and it was something I had (to pursue). Most people understand the philosophy of double-dipping. It’s a chance for me to retire here and still coach and teach at a school in close proximity.”

Setzer graduated from now-defunct Sylva-Webster High (which is presently Smoky Mountain’s campus) in 1976. He went 1-21 in two seasons with the Mustangs. But a 30-27 win over North Henderson closed out the 2010 season and finally brought an end to a 22-game losing streak.

Smoky Mountain and returning All-Appalachian Athletic Conference selection Tom Pawlowski open their season Aug. 19 at home against Cherokee.

“My thoughts are with the coaches and the players,” Setzer said.

“They’re winners and they proved it by winning that game last season. It’s been really tough, it’s been a struggle at times. But I really feel like things are headed in the right direction and that win is proof.”

Asheville High's Tysean Holloway, left, and Reynolds' A.J. Marion were both named to the Citizen-Times All-WNC football team in 2010.

In enthusiastic agreement, Tysean Holloway and A.J. Marion say they are distant cousins.

But exactly how distant? Second? Third?

When put on the spot, neither senior knew for sure earlier this week. But what is much clearer is that genetics have been good to each of the top running backs in Western North Carolina.

Holloway (who plays for Asheville High) and Marion (Reynolds) both return after All-WNC seasons in 2010 and with the promise of many, many more rushing yards.

“As long as we’re winning, I don’t care how many yards I have or how many records I break,” said Holloway, who needs 1,710 more yards to surpass Asheville’s career record (5,141).

“(Marion) is a really powerful, dynamic player. He’s a great back and we’re family off the field. You get to know pretty much everyone at schools like Reynolds, Erwin and Roberson. There’s no friends on the field though, we’re enemies.”

Practice for Western North Carolina high school football teams began on an official basis Saturday.

Everyone with Asheville and Reynolds on their schedule knows what to expect. That hardly guarantees that any defense can keep Holloway or Marion from rushing for a small country each Friday.

Holloway gained a career-high 1,819 yards and 29 touchdowns in 2010. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound senior is the only current area player with a scholarship offer from Western Carolina University. Whether it is WCU or another college, Holloway hopes to enroll early after graduating from Asheville in December.

Likewise, Reynolds coach Shane Laws said that at least one prominent Division I college has asked for the same timetable from Marion, who is a 5-foot-10, 190-pound senior. East Carolina University came through with a scholarship offer for Marion late in his 2010 season, one in which he rushed for 1,815 yards and 24 touchdowns.